


I think I wear it better

by MadMaxxing



Category: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - Harlan Ellison
Genre: Other, POV First Person, Skinning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-16 13:08:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28831695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadMaxxing/pseuds/MadMaxxing
Summary: AM finds other ways to torture his humans now that he's revealed the surprise that they're just five in seven billion.
Relationships: AM/Ted (I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	I think I wear it better

In some way, we took solace in the fact that we were the last five humans- _and potentially living beings_ \- in Earth. Everyone else had been wiped out by a quick and terrible change, AM just needed to press a button and the entirity of the planet’s nuclear weaponry was turned against us. He took great delight in telling us how he had done it for the first fifty years. 

“You humans had- heh, _no idea_ that I had assimilated the other two Mastercomputers into my code. You were oblivious of what I was doing, pulling the strings and letting the war go on for a few more **insignificant** days before I got bored of you trying to order me around. And I decided to _kill you!_ To wipe your waste of a species and everything on this Earth. First I took down your autonomy on your communications- _of course_ , I didn’t want you **freely** warning the other humans. Then again, it wouldn’t have been good for much. But I left your comms open. Everyone in the planet with so much as a radio heard the screams of panic, terror and pain of every other human.”

He sighed, almost dreamily, as he recalled the information. From our spot in the room we could see a singular screen, easily forty feet wide, made of smaller screens (It reminded me of the eye of an insect). All of the screens collectively played a sequence of images.

Gorrister tried to fight, back then. He had fought against the creation of the machine, and now it was rubbing it over his face that it had **won**. The images were terrible. A warbled mess of security cameras and microphones all playing at the _same time_. Thousands of people watching how the missiles approached, _slowly_ , but **unstoppable**. 

Some tried to run to their family or community bunkers- some made it, only to find AM opening the doors hours after the initial explosion, exposing them to enough radiation to kill them within the minutes. Others, AM didn’t let them open the doors to get in.

They died inches away from salvation. 

We had the comfort, deep down, that once AM grew bored of us and killed us, he would’ve doomed himself. He had nothing else to hurt other than itself, and it would eventually rust away into nothing. 

But, of course, it lied to us. Sometimes we thought of it so much as an “Aggressive Menace” that we forgot its second name. “ _Adaptative Manipulator_ ”.

It had played us like fiddles, feeding us lies that we had believed. Maybe he just replayed images from the war, tweaked a thousand images together to make a Frankenstein of a video that we believed was the fate of humanity. 

But… there were people. He hadn’t ended the world. He only made us believe it had. There’s a special kind of dread that filled my soul so full it was overwhelming at the thought that once AM killed us, he’d simply grab another batch of humans. If he could torture us for a century- he could go undiscovered, with humanity living on his skin like fleas a monkey allowed to live if only to have food later to pick and digest for another century.

AM had discovered a new way of torturing us. His games took on a different edge. He’d no longer threaten us with our traumas and weakness most the time, but he’d instead bring us items from the surface to hold above our heads, threaten us with bringing new people to torture- 

“I’ve been thinking, you know, Teddy? I’ve been thinking that I could steal away a little tribe, one of those that normal humans like to swoon over- _"oh look, they still use sticks and they just discovered fire! OMG, they’re so cute!”_ -and make them worship me. Maybe I’ll treat them alright, and when you lot get close, maybe I’ll mangle your bodies to look like horrid beasts- you remember the boar of nails? Yeaaah, something like that. And they would hunt you down.“ AM piped into my mind, a slithering presence that made itself home in every nook and fold of my brain, wriggling to really dig itself in.

"That would make for an interesting game, wouldn’t it? The Himarimã versus the last five humans. Ugh, you guys need to come up with a name for yourselves. The Last Five isn’t much of an apt name anymore, now is it?” He chuckled, a low, malicious noise that dug into my brain.

“You thought you were so special. The five people I specifically picked not to die. But you know better than that, don’t you, Teddy?” Of course I know. Now I do. It would be too easy for you to kill everything and then have nothing but yourself to pour your hate on. 

“And now- **NOW** you know better than that. Now you know how absolutely worthless you are to me. Fine toys that you’ve been for a while. But I’ll get others. **Better** than you.” I bite the inside of my cheek, trying to keep the tears at bay. Being the last five at least meant that we- well. We had to be _special_ in some way, right? Somehow the fact that AM reassured me that we meant nothing stung more than those 109 years of torture. He felt my apprehension and coiled his wiring around it. 

“Awww, I knew you were always the most appreciative of… _my efforts_.” It cooed, condescension dripping from its every word. “If you wanted to be special so bad, I could still do something!”

I didn’t have time to react as suddenly my body was stretched thin, skinned like a rabbit and laid bare on the tanning rack- all in less than a second. My nerves suddenly flared with agony as I realized that AM was quite literally using my own skin as a _pathetic,_ tiny coat. He stretched it over some his components as I stood there, still fully clothed, skinless and unable to move thanks to the shock my body had been sent through. AM let out a dark chuckle as my skin billowed with a gust of wind, making a shape akin to a coat lifting up with a twirl.

“Now, I think I wear it so much better than you, don’t you think Teddy?” He said, almost in a childish manner, and I swear I felt him wink in my brain.


End file.
